How to achieve text in 3d space that is properly occluded

Questions & Answers
1

I would like to have an object with some text floating above it. I can use 3d Text (The thing that comes from the menu GameObject → 3d Object → 3d Text) but the text is always visible even when it should be occluded by objects in front of it. To fix that I found people referencing this wiki article

http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=3DText

Which sounds like it should fix the issue, but I don’t see a way to set the texture for the material. There are no fonts in project, I am just using the default font Arial.

Alternative to this approach it appears that the UI Text (GameObject menu → UI → Text) renders properly, but it seems that I can only add them to a single canvas element and I need to be able to render text above multiple objects. It also obfuscates the items position in world space. I only see a way to proper coordinates in canvas space.

People often point to Text Mesh Pro (Unity Asset Store - The Best Assets for Game Making) but I am not interested in a paid asset at this point

I feel like I am probably missing something as this feels like a rudimentary feature

2

I was using the same wiki article, I think it’s just outdated at this point. BUT I found a great how-to on World Space GUI, which essentially does the same thing.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/HOWTO-UIWorldSpace.html

I know it’s pretty late by now but hopefully this helps somebody.